Wetland Mitigation Compliance in the Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan

The Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) is generally responsible for the implementation of federal Clean Water Act wetland regulations. It therefore plays an important role in the protection of wetlands within the United States. Unfortunately, past evaluators of ACEs implementation of these regulations found low rates of regulatory compliance. However, the fact that two states have taken responsibility for the implementation of these regulations within their boundaries provided the opportunity to assess whether one of these states might be doing a better job of enforcement. This paper reports on compliance with some of these regulations within one Michigan region. We evaluated permittee compliance with paperwork filing requirements related to wetland mitigation projects. Sixty-seven percent of county road commission permittees were out of compliance with at least one filing requirement. Forty percent of private and non-county government permittees were out of compliance. Our results therefore suggest that serious problems exist with Michigans implementation of wetland regulations. They do not suggest that compliance in this state is significantly better than in states under ACE administration. We believe that increased agency monitoring and enforcement would improve compliance.     

Comparing petroleum fiscal regimes under oil price uncertainty

This study investigates and compares five upstream petroleum fiscal systems under crude oil price uncertainty. The fiscal systems analyzed are: the Alberta Canada tax and royalty system, the Papua New Guinea (PNG) (pre-2003) traditional Rate of Return (ROR) system, the Sao Tome and Principe/Nigerian Joint Development Zone (SNJDZ) Production Sharing Contract (PSC), the Tanzanian PSC/ROR hybrid system and the Trinidad and Tobago PSC. Contingent claims analysis is used to value the governments’ tax claims under uncertainty using a numerical approach, viz., Monte Carlo simulation. Each system is tested to obtain the after-tax value accruing to firms as well as the distortionary effects introduced by the fiscal systems. The results are then ranked. The Alberta Canada and PNG fiscal systems provide companies with the highest after-tax values while also being the least distortionary. The Tanzanian system is the lowest in both rankings, providing relatively low after-tax values and introducing strong distortionary effects. The SNJDZ PSC imposed a relatively high tax burden on companies with median distortionary effects. The Trinidadian PSC generated a median tax burden on companies but has strong distortionary effects.     

Evaluation of anthropogenic atmospheric inputs on US national park ecosystems

It is estimated that more than half the threats to national park resources originate outside park boundaries, and most threats are attributable to degradation of air and water quality. Atmospheric contaminants are the principal source of external threats to national park ecosystems. This article examines the potential impact to national park resources by anthropic atmospheric inputs and summarizes present research methods and results regarding impacts. Air quality monitoring currently receives much more emphasis and support than effects research. Present research on effects focuses on vegetation impact, biomonitoring, and acid rain. This research and that of other investigators suggest that the most likely impacts will not be direct cause-effect situations, but indirect, incremental, and possibly synergistic effects on the interactions of ecosystem components. Conceptually, such alteration of interactions can be measured through long-term observation of biogeochemical cycles, energy transfer, and community structure and function. But traditional Park Service research has not emphasized the ecosystem and especially ecosystem processes and component interactions. Most research on effects, then, must begin with baseline data acquisition. A research program to mitigate present national data base deficiencies would require a fundamental change in present research priorities, administration, and funding.     

Opportunities and challenges in CO2 utilization

CO₂ utilizations are essential to curbing the greenhouse gas effect and managing the environmental pollutant in an energy-efficient and economically-sound manner.This paper seeks to critically analyze these technologies in the context of each other and highlight the most important utilization avenues available thus far.This review will introduce and analyze each major pathway,and discuss the overall applicability,potential extent,and major limitations of each of these pathways to util...